Minister calls for intensive manpower training

Malawi needs to do more in skills and manpower training to create employment which is a key component to the social economic development of the country.

Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa said this on Friday in Lilongwe when he visited the secretariat of Technical, Entrepreneurial,Vocational Education and Training (Tevet).

He said more needs to be done to reduce levels of unemployment and one such way is improving the delivery of technical, vocational education and training in the country.

Henry Mussa: Visited the secretariat of Tevet

“Our agenda is employment creation, because if we look at our population, hardly 10 percent contributing to the socio- economic development of this nation through employment. So, now the question we are asking ourselves is what are we doing for the remaining 90 percent that is unemployed?

“There is what we call self-employment and to attain self-employment and create more jobs then we have to go the route of skills development, that is one of the reasons the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development has been elevated to be one of the priority ministries,” said Mussa.

The minister, who in the past week toured Lilongwe, Salima, Mzuzu and Soche technical colleges, bemoaned the status of the institutions and has called for their immediate revamping.

Mussa also made a commitment to help Tevet recover money in excess of K2.6 billion which it is being owed by both the private and public sectors.

Tevet acting executive director Wilson Makulumiza-Nkhoma said although they are facing challenges of varying degrees, they have introduced new courses which initially were not part of their curriculum.